Single-Engine Plane Crashes Into House in Connecticut, Killing 2

By MICHELLE O'DONNELL; Avi Salzman contributed reporting for this article.

Published: October 12, 2004

A single-engine plane attempting to make an emergency landing in a ball field in Madison, Conn., instead plowed into a nearby house yesterday evening, killing the two people on board, officials and neighbors said.

Three residents of the home were inside at the time of the crash, but managed to escape, according to Robert Gerard, the chief of the Madison Fire Department.

The Madison police identified the victims as Scott Hanlon, 44, of New Milford, Conn., and Katherine Johnson, 49, of Danbury, Conn. Witnesses said that Mr. Hanlon was at the controls of the plane.

The crash startled residents of the quiet, semirural enclave on Long Island Sound, 20 miles east of New Haven. Neighbors said they did not hear any engine noise before the plane slammed into the Cape Cod-style house at 104 Lovers Lane at 5:52 p.m.

''It must have been gliding because the tops of the two huge trees they have outside were sheared off,'' said Frank Balisciano, 57, who lives next door. ''My wife and I were working in the room right next to the house and we heard no sounds, just a crash.''

Two minutes before the crash, the pilot radioed the radar control room at Bradley International Airport near Hartford; he issued a Mayday and said his engine had stopped running, according to Jim Peters, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration.

Mr. Peters said tapes of voice communications were being reviewed last night for additional clues to what went wrong.

Mr. Balisciano and Tom Schultz, a house painter who was painting nearby and witnessed the crash, were among the first on the scene.

''It was hard to process what I was seeing, something you never expect to see -- a plane hitting a house,'' Mr. Schultz said.

Sandra Davis, a neighbor, described the eerie aftermath: ''It was absolutely quiet and still. There were no ambulances, no fire trucks.''

Mr. Schultz said that he searched for family members in the house, but then learned that the three members of the family -- a couple and their young son -- who were at home at the time had safely escaped to the ball field. The couple's daughter was not home, the neighbors said.

The mother had been on the ground floor of the home when the plane struck, neighbors said.

With his ladder, Mr. Schultz reached the two people trapped in the mangled plane, which had hit the roof over the sun room and kitchen.

Ms. Johnson had already died, and Mr. Hanlon, who had only a faint pulse, died on the way to a nearby hospital, the authorities said.

The plane, a 1978 Piper Warrior, is registered to the Danbury Flight School, Mr. Peters said. The plane was en route from Nantucket Island to Danbury, he added.

Photo: Two adults and their small son who were in the house were not injured. (Photo by Christopher P. Walker)